Zany Questions

Several years ago, it became a ‘thing’ for Alyssa to have a slumber party for her birthday.

Great fun is had by all and it’s just what we do these days.

Tom tried to put the kibosh on the slumber party last year, citing “CHEMO”.

Alas, I, being the actual chemo patient, overruled him and the slumber party happened.

Tom has also tried to impose a limit on the number of guests invited to this annual shindig.

(Please note that Tom is not quite the fuddy duddy that I paint him to be, it’s just that he doesn’t like having people over, like at all, and really kind of hates going out…wait, he’s actually totally the fuddy duddy he’s appearing to be…nevermind.)

Again, he was reminded that we only have this party once a year, since it’s, ahem, a birthday party and he should just kind of shut it and let it happen as it’s going to anyway and he’s just causing stress amongst those of us who do the work of planning the party.

Yes.

Anyway.

Alyssa has reminded him each time he tries to tell her how many (three? Really?) people she can invite that she can’t possibly not invite people she’s previously invited because that will inevitably lead to hurt feelings and she can’t abide hurting anyone’s feelings.

We also remind him that even when she invites eight to ten people, invariably, only five or six show up, and again, no one is hurt because everyone was invited.

So there.

Amongst the invitees during The Year of Chemo was the one male friend that Lyss has invited for several years now. Let’s call him Zane because he’s just a zany kind of guy. A little backstory: Zane always has questions. At school some of the teachers have had to institute a three question per day rule when it comes to Zane. This makes me sad for him because Dude wants to know! How’s he going to find out what he wants to know if people impose limits to his search for knowledge?

Then again, there are usually about 20 kids per class and if everyone were as curious as Zane, there would be no time for actual teaching, only questions and answers…but wait, maybe that’s what school should really be. Hmmm, I think Zane is on to something.

So at last year’s party, I happened to get warm. Remember, I was wearing a stocking cap all the time, due to, you know, baldness.

So I took the hat off and said something off hand about no one caring that I was shining my bald head about the room.

Zane was curious. He asked what happened to my hair.

I kind of blinked at him and said matter-of-factly, “Chemo.”

He gasped, “You have cancer!?!”

I laughed because his reaction was just so lovely.

One of Lyss’s other friend, Amy, said, “Didn’t you know? I though everyone knew.”

Zane was shocked that no one had told him.

I was surprised he cared so much.

Alyssa muttered something about not making a big announcement, that it had just been mentioned amongst a few people here and there.

Zane was so offended that he hadn’t been told. He was also very concerned about my well-being. I think he might have teared up over the whole thing.

He’s a sweetheart and I’m glad Lyss has him in her life.

She’s got a good bunch of friends, is what I’m saying.

P.S. It amuses me so that I managed to use the words kibosh, shindig and fuddy duddy all in one post. I’m easily amused, but we all already knew that, right?